Collateral Damage – Yosemite Valley’s Little Sister…

July 8, 2022 by  
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One of the many joys inspired by collecting (and reading) old/historic newspapers is the knowledge gained by investigating/exploring decades and even centuries old articles about things which were noteworthy in their day but are unbeknownst to the average reader of today. Such is the case with an article I recently found within the November 25, 1882 issue of The Washington World (D.C.).

The worst non-weather-related tragedy in the history of the United States remains the San Fransico Earthquake/Fire of 1906. The devastation was unimaginable – over 3,000 people perished and greater than 80% of San Fransico was destroyed. The direct and collateral impact are still felt to this day. One such case of the latter is the ongoing battle over Yosemite Valley’s little sister.

Positioned slightly to the north of Yosemite National Park is the Hetch Hetchy Valley. While not as expansive, and with somewhat less than Ansel-Adams-esque views, its beauty was breathtaking – the operating word being “was”. If one were to view the valley today, heartbreaking would be the more accurate description. Instead of the serene beauty that touched the souls of John Muir, Willaim Keith, Albert Bierstadt, and a host of others, today one would see a nearly empty mud-hole resulting from a nearly dry reservoir. Yuck!

But why a reservoir? In response to the 1906 earthquake and resulting fire, the need for a better water-source for the San Fransico Bay region was obvious. After years of battling with the Sierra Club and likeminded naturalists, in 1913 a Congress passed legislation naming the Tuolumne River as “the solution” and authorized a dam to be built in order to create a reservoir for the needed water-supply. In 1923 the O’Shaughnessy Dam was completed and the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir was born. While there continue to be calls to remove the dam, the collateral damage has been done, and reclaiming that which has long-since been washed away by decades of emersion seems highly unlikely if not impossible.

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Filed under: Post Civil War, The 20th & 21st Centuries, The Collectible Community
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